Cartridge holder carrier



July 31, 1956 T. E. OSWALD CARTRIDGE HOLDER AND CARRIER Filed Dec. 8, 1953 w Mm R R E m m a g m y B n a United States Patent CARTRIDGE HOLDER CARRIER Thomas E. Oswald, Montesano, Wash.

Application December 8, 1953, Serial No. 396,905

2 Claims. (Cl. 224-15) The present invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in a holder and carrier for cartridges such as are used as ammunition in rifles, side arms, shotguns and the like.

As the preceding paragraph clearly implies, others working in the art to which the invention relates have offered cartridge holders and carriers of one type or another which may or may not have satisfied the requirements of those concerned. What with the fact that such analogous holders as are known to me have not, apparently, met with widespread adoption and use, the demand and need for such a device has inspired the instant concept which, it is believed, involves the use of a more satisfactory and practical construction, with the result that a highly satisfactory carrier is that which is herein disclosed.

A similar objective is to structurally, functionally and otherwise improve upon similarly constructed and performing prior art carrier clips, magazines and similar assembling and retaining holders and, in doing so, to provide a special structural adaptation in which manufacturers, retailers and gunners and other users will find their respective requirements and needs aptly met.

In carrying out the principles of the present invention a cartridge carrier is provided which makes for easy and instant use of the users fingers in obtaining access to the cartridges in the carrier even when, during cold weather, the fingers are covered with a glove.

Another object is to provide a carrier which is such in construction that the cartridges may be discharged one at a time or all at once by applying and exerting thumb pressure at the top of the group or on the lowermost cartridge whereby the latter may be promptly ejected into the palm of the hand for ready use.

The invention also features a simple, economical and eificient cooperation of a specially designed non-corrodible metal frame which provides the desired assembling and friction-gripping properties for the holder, said frame being encased in a jacket or casing which is preferably constructed of leather or an equivalent material and in which construction there is no danger of corrosive action occurring on the ammunition and causing the same to lodge and stick in the carrier as is often the case when cartridges are carried in loops or pockets provided therefor on a cartridge belt.

Whereas the cartridges when carried in ones pocket rattle and are thus objectionable, the instant encased frame provides a constantly clean, dry and suitable holder for the readily accessible cartridges.

Of outstanding importance is the fact that the holder and carrier which is the subject matter of this invention constitutes the construction wherein because of the readily openable and closable wall of the leather case and the manner in which the cartridges are held in the flexibly resilient friction fingers, procuring the cartridges is nevertheless simple and practical and this promotes great speed in reloading of firearms and is throught to cut down reload ing speed to about fifty percent or more on all firearms 2 where cartridges are loaded or reloaded singly. Hence, this phase of the invention, accessibility and time saving, is of signficant importance.

Briefly summarized, the invention comprises a frame closed at its top, open at its bottom and also open along its vertical sides, said frame embodying a plurality of -resilient fingers spaced and cooperatively arranged to yieldingly and frictionally embrace a plurality of cartridges, said fingers being rigidly connected together at their respective upper ends, the lower ends being free of connection with each other and having cooperating bends providing pressure responsive openable and closable keepers, said keepers being normally in cartridge gripping and retaining relationship.

Other objects, features and advantages will become more readily apparent from the following description and the accompanying sheet of illustrative drawings.

In the drawings, wherein like numerals are employed to designate like parts throughout the views:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a cartridge holder and carrier constructed in accordance with the invention and showing the same closed;

' Figure 2 is a perspective view based on Figure l and showing the movable walls of the leather case swung down to open position to render the cartridges accessible for quick and ready removal;

Figure 3 is a view on a slightly enlarged scale taken on the approximate vertical line 3--3 of Figure 1 looking in the direction of the arrows;

Figure 4 is a perspective view of the unit or part of the over-all construction which is referred to as a frame; and

Figure 5 is a horizontal section on the line 55 of Figure 1.

Reference is had first to Figure 4 wherein the aforementioned frame is shown and is denoted by the numeral 6. This is constructed from a suitable non-corrodible metal having the desired rigid as well as resilient properties. The front member is approximately of inverted U-shape and it comprises a pair of flat-faced relatively narrow depending fingers 8'8 joined to the respective ends of the connecting bight portion 10, which is rigid. The fingers are flexibly resilient and the free lower ends are provided with lateral or curvate bends 1212 which may be described as hook-like keepers. There is a rigid web 14 joined to and extending at right angles from the bight portion 10 and attached to the opposite edge portion 16 thereof is a depending rear member. This comprises a substantially fiat triangular wall portion 18 whose central or apical end is provided with an extension 20 defining a third flexibly resilient assembling and clamping finger. The lower end of the latter is also free and is here provided with a convex bend 22 forming a sort of a cam-like keeper. It will be noticed that the finger 20 is in a plane different from that of the fingers 8. That is to say, the fingers 8-8 are coplanar and in spaced parallelism and the finger 20 is at a different plane but occupies a position which is opposite the central portion of the space existing between the fingers 8-8. All of the fingers are such that they terminate at what is called the open bottom of the frame. Thus, the frame is closed at the top, open at the bottom and open along opposite vertical edges. It consequently provides a sort of a locking clip for the cartridges which are denoted in dotted lines by the numeral 24. The niche 25 in the lower central edge portion of the bight portion 10 is a finger recess permitting the thumb of the users hand to have access to the uppermost cartridge to exert pressure thereon and to force the cartridges down and out of the open bottom-of the frame. The cartridges can be pushed out more-or-less in an assembled group or pushed out one by one as is obvious.

As before stated, it is desirable to weatherproof the racking and carrying frame and to do this a leather or equivalent case 26 is provided. This corresponds in shape and size to the frame and in fact snugly encloses and is secured to and forms part of the frame and the frame forms a sort of'a rigidifying liner for the case and the case, in turn, provides a housing for the frame and the cartridges to weatherproof the latter. Thecase comprises a rear wall .28 (see Figs. 3 and riveted at 29 to wall portion 18, top wall 30 (see Fig. 2),.bottom wall 32, front wall 34 and vertical side walls 3636 having flanges or flaps 37-37 turned in toward each other, overlapping and.

riveted at 3939 to the aforementioned fingers 8-8. The back, top and side walls are joined together whereas the bottom wall 32 and front wall 34 are hingedly connected to each other so as to form openable and closable wall means for the case. When these walls 32 and '34 are swung down as shown in Figure 2 they uncover the frame and the cartridges permitting accessto behad to the cartridges. The top wall 30 has female snap fasteners 38 to receive cooperating male snap fasteners 40-40 on the retaining flap 42 carried by the normal upper end of the front wall 34. The numeral 44 designates a belt and 46 designates a belt loop carried by the case for mounting the encased frame on the belt as shown in Figure 3.

The manner of inserting and removing the cartridges and protectively containing the same in the frame structure is clear, it is believed, in the drawings taken in conjunction with the description and claims. In these circumstances a more limited description is thought to be unnecessary.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

1. A holder and carrier for gun cartridges comprising a frame closed at its top, open at its bottom and also open along its vertical sides, said frame embodying a plurality of resilient fingers spaced and cooperatively arranged to yieldingly and frictionally embrace a plurality of cartridges, said fingers rigidly connected together at their respective upper ends, the lower ends being free of connection with each other and having cooperating bends providing pressure responsive openable keepers, said-keepers being normally in cartridge gripping and retaining relationship, there being three distinct fingers; namely, two front fingers in coplanar spaced parallelism,'and one rear finger, the latter in a plane distinct from the plane of the front fingers and occupying a position opposite to the median portion of the space existing between said front fingers.

2. A holder and carrier for a group of cartridges comprising a non-corrodible metal frame embodying a U- shaped member embodying a pair of spaced parallel coplanar resilient front fingers joined at their ends by way of a coplanar rigid bight portion, a complemental member embodying a plate portionv joined to said bight portion by way of a web at right angles to said plate and bight portion, said plateportion havinga-single depending resilient rear finger situated in a position central to the space existing between said front fingers,all 'of'said'fingers being relatively narrow, fiat-faced and corresponding in length, the lower ends of all of said fingers being free to flex relative to one another, the free'ends of the'front fingers having hook-like bends directed rearwardly toward the free end of the rear finger, the free end of the rear finger having a forwardly convexed cam-like bend and the several bends cooperating in providing yieldable friction-gripping keepers which normally hold the lowermost cartridge against displacement but are allowed to spread apart to intentionally release said cartridge when a downward pull is brought to bear against said keepers, and a protective case fitted over and enclosing said frame, said case having openable and closable bottom and front walls, said bottom wall serving to bridge the space between said keepers and the frontwall serving to accessibly uncover the cartridges to permit the latter to be expressed one-by-one or as a group, as desired by the user.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 278,980 Livermore et a1 June 5, 1883 521,116 Ingram June 5, 1894 571,973 Johnson Nov. 24, 1896 1,705,829 Stanley Mar. 19, 1929 1,993,885 Ho'rwitt Mar. 12, 1935 2,122,003 Cooper June 28, 1938 2,137,680 'Vogel Nov. 22, 1938 2,612,199 Schocket Sept. 30, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 8,181 Great Britain 1904 

